Teddy Roosevelt AND Disabilities Awareness

Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States and served from 1901-1909.  I used to think highly of him…used to. He does have many “positives” on his resume. He marched our troops up San Juan Hill during the Spanish-American War after forming the “Rough Riders”, a volunteer calvary.  He was an original “tree hugger” and fancied himself as an environmentalist President.  He created many national parks and wildlife refuges.  He supported the Sherman Antitrust Act, which broke up some of the monopolies in our country.  He devised the “Square Deal”, which reformed the American workplace which, in turn, helped the middle class.  He supported desegregation and womens’ voting rights.  A whole bunch on the plus side – bully for him.  Recently, I read something about Roosevelt that I simply could not believe.  In 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt signed an immigration act which excluded the following groups of people from being admitted to the United States = “idiots, imbeciles, feebleminded persons, epileptics, and insane persons.”  What?  Huh? Are you kidding me?  I spent many years teaching kids with multiple types of handicaps.  I treasure those times and those kids.  During the time this act was signed, mentally handicapped people were referred to as “imbeciles, idiots, and feebleminded.”  So, his mission was to prevent the disabled from entering the country…that really frosts my cakes.  Obviously, this act has been repealed and thank God for that.  I am no longer a fan of the man who said to “Walk softly, but carry a big stick.”  I don’t think he would like my recommendation as to where to put that stick.

Our school is home to a population of kids with various disabilities.  We provide a continuum of services to meet their needs.  We have kids who have been identified as having specific learning disabilities with corresponding processing deficits.  We have kids on the autism spectrum and those identified with mild and moderate mental handicaps.  We have kids with cognitive challenges and those with emotional disabilities. We have kids who have physical handicaps and social anxieties. The common thread is this:  we have kids!  We look at all 917 of our students as kids whose needs we are trying to meet at many levels.  Some of them are disabled.  So what?  I prefer to look at the “abled” side of our kids.  Five years ago, I had a person approach me with this question, “I don’t know what good you think it is for “those” kids to be in a regular school.”  Wrong thing to say to me.  Mustering up all of the steadiness that I could, I replied, “I think that it does them a world of good to be here, but I know it does me a world of good that they are here.” This neandertheral moved away and most likely crawled back to his regularly scheduled meeting with Og and Grog.  Our “abled” kids are a huge part of our school.  Our teachers in this area have their best interests at heart every single day.  In this month of “Disabilities Awareness”, we are aware mostly of what kids can do, not what they cannot do.